


Give 'Em Hell, Kid

by ipsilateral



Category: To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Movies), To All the Boys I've Loved Before Series - Jenny Han
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29797833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ipsilateral/pseuds/ipsilateral
Summary: "Alright. So anyway, what's the aesthetic we're going for here?"Peter gives her a blank look. "A...gift aesthetic."Hopeless. "Have you seen any of her moodboards?"-- Kitty helps Peter pick out a gift
Relationships: Peter Kavinsky & Katherine "Kitty" Song-Covey
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Give 'Em Hell, Kid

Saturdays are usually pretty low key. Kitty wakes up around 10am, then spends at least another hour lying in bed with her phone until Dad makes a show of stomping up the stairs to get both Lara Jean and her out and moving. But today she's up and dressed way earlier because she actually has a scheduled meeting. Even better, it's a humanity project: helping Peter pick out a birthday present for Lara Jean. 

Lara Jean herself is already out shopping with Chris, so Peter lets himself in and up to Kitty's room without being all corny or secretive. Kitty eyes him from her desk and wrinkles her nose when she notices he's holding a notebook and a pen. Analog materials? Really? Also, he always feels way too big for her room, and even more so when he sits at the foot of her bed and dwarfs the twin frame. 

Whatever. She reminds herself she's being nice today. Magnanimous, even. But first she has to berate him for ignoring her advice on Christmas gifts and going too big with a perfect vintage lavender Lacoste cardigan. Lara Jean had screamed at the perfect decibel at which to pierce everyone's eardrums. 

"I'm just _saying_. If you go too big, you have to keep outdoing yourself during future gift giving occasions," Kitty finishes, just before he looks like he's about to leave. Stopping short of too far is a special talent of hers, honed by all the years of being a younger sister times two. "Alright. So anyway, what's the aesthetic we're going for here?"

Peter gives her a blank look. "A...gift aesthetic."

Hopeless. "Have you seen any of her moodboards?"

"Do you mean those collage thingies?"

"Yes. Good. So you know that Lara Jean fantasizes about her life as a Gucci perfume commercial, with the soft focus and pastels and florals."

"Right," Peter nods. "Right, I actually do know what you're talking about. There was a pink one recently. Lots of pink shades." They sit in silence for a bit while he thinks. "Okay, so like. Flowers?"

"Well, not just flowers, but what other things do flowers make you think of?"

"Dirt." 

Kitty stares at him. 

"Fertilizer!" Peter snaps his fingers. 

"Obviously you're being annoying on purpose." Kitty waits for confirmation anyway.

"Obviously," Peter repeats. "Jeez, you're even more grumpy before noon. Alright, flowers make me think of like, other plants. Succulents. And sunny days."

"Getting warmer, I think," Kitty says thoughtfully. 

"Long dresses. Puffy white clouds."

"Reading outside," Kitty suggests. 

Peter draws a box in his notebook for some reason, perhaps to signify a book. "Umm. Polaroids."

"Black and white?"

"Nah, color." He taps the pen against his mouth. "She already has an Instax, right? Oh wait," he interrupts himself, then points the pen at Kitty and adds, "Glowing skin."

"Oooh, yes. Fancy skincare stuff is always good." Satisfaction soars through her, the same kind as when Jamie does a particularly impressive trick. But apparently that's not a good thing; she's mentioned it to Lara Jean in the past, and Lara Jean just huffed and said, "Kitty, that's not a compliment!"

Peter would react differently, though. To prove it, if only to herself, she reaches out and pats the top of his head where the curls are growing in longer. "Good boy," she says. 

"Arf," Peter responds immediately. He bites down on the pen and bares his teeth. 

_See?_ , Kitty thinks, triumphant. Lara Jean takes things so seriously sometimes. 

On cue, Peter drops the expression and says, "Let's maybe not tell Lara Jean that you treat me like a second dog."

"Oh, so boys don't like that?" Kitty asks, sneering but also filing away this bit of information for future reference. Peter flicks her on the forehead with his stupid spit-covered pen. " _Gross_ ," she hollers.

"Boys do not like that, no." Then Peter perks up like a bloodhound. "What kinds of boys do you like anyway? Or girls. Or whoever."

"I don't know," Kitty scowls. 

She types in _nordstrom.com_ onto her tablet to distract from the fact that she's lying. What she does not want to admit under any circumstances is that the Song-Covey gene for dreaming about ridiculous romances has apparently been switched on. She'd thought herself the exception, but now she's been falling in love with every boy she comes across, especially ones with warm hazel eyes, or ones who wear pants that show their ankles, and even more if they're wearing fun socks. Or ones who hold their hands up to their eyebrows as they squint into the sun, or have hoodies that are splotched with paint as if they were very recently building a fence -- 

"I can't wait until you get a boyfriend," Peter muses. "Or a girlfriend. Or whoever it is. I just can't wait."

"What? Why?" Even after months, she is still enthralled at the idea of occupying the brain space of someone like Peter: namely someone older, wiser, and not Dad or one of her sisters. 

"Because! You'll be so embarrassed about it. And also they'll turn your whole world upside down and you'll go through some kind of existential crisis." 

She gapes at him, even though she doesn't know what _existential_ fully means in this context. "Eugh! Crisis? That sounds awful, why would you be excited for something like that?" 

"The embarrassment part is clearly so I can make fun of you. Duh," Peter declares. "The crisis part is like -- it'll mean that you're growing up and growing as a person." 

"Well I don't want to grow up." 

Peter _pffts_. "Nobody really wants it. I mean, everybody wants it, I guess, but not in the way that it actually turns out. But it happens anyway, you know?" He stares over Kitty's shoulder out the window, eyes soft. The sun makes him look like a boy in a magazine, glowing all angelically tan. His expression is neutral but still, something about it also looks sad or worried, which Kitty can't figure out. 

"You're not making any sense," she tells him. She manages to pull the emergency brake in her brain before it _does_ start making sense. It's a close call, though. "Okay, enough about me for once, helloooo. You still have to figure out what you're gonna get Lara Jean!" 

He comes back into himself then, swats at her again with the pen and says, "Ahh, fine. You and Owen are the exact same, I swear." 

"Do you mean that we're both extremely caring, giving, and unselfish younger siblings? Then yes, I absolutely agree," Kitty states, looking back down at her tablet. "Oh, what about a facial serum?" 

"Maybe. I know she likes the Belif brand?" Peter says hopefully. 

"This one is from Dr. Barbara Sturm." She turns the tablet to show him. "And it's only three-hundred dollars!" 

This time the pen bounces off her forehead and leaves a tangible sheen of spit behind. She's up before she knows it, throwing the tablet onto the bed and running to the bathroom, while Peter laughs the whole time. 


End file.
